Posted on 08/18/2006 4:04:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The object, 2000 EB173, was found in March using data collected by a 39-inch (1-meter) telescope at the CIDA Observatory in Venezuela. The space rock is estimated at about one-quarter the size of Pluto and joins a club of more than 300 other "trans-Neptunian objects," small bodies that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune... Charles Baltay, a Yale University physicist who headed up the investigation [said] ... "We believe that this thing has been orbiting since the formation of the solar system. So it's the primordial stuff, and it's bright enough that we can study it in detail." The object appears to be dark red, suggesting it is covered with ancient organic chemistry, Baltay said, but more data will reveal better facts. The size of the object... could range from 185 to 435 miles (300 to 700 kilometers), said Gareth Williams, associate director of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center... "We can't see it directly," he said of EB173, but astronomers estimated its size based on its brightness. The object orbits the Sun every 240 years...
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
This one was named Huya in 2003.
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